What car do you drive and why did you choose it

[RAS007]

Great thread. Currently, 2018 Mercedes Benz GLS550 (previously a 2013 BMW e92 M3, but needed something much bigger/more comfortable for long interstate driving; also, 2016 Range Rover HSE. My dream car is still a 1994 Subaru Impreza Turbo.

[Duvel]

My cars i had in the passed are a bit more boring..

I got a Isuzu Pick-up as a first car, got it from my parents.

Then i started working in a Peugeot garage so i bought a new Peugeot 206 2.0 HDI. That was and stil is a nice, little fast and strong car. Had it tuned to 130hp.
Stil have that one, but not using it, no nr plates.

Now i drive an old Citroen Jumper for my wife's shop, and as our family car we have a 307 break. It fits 3 children, thats the most important. It is the "strongset" version they have at Peugeot in a 307 diesel..


I would like to buy a 206RC once, also looking for options to buy a yountimer wich also could fit the whole family for when going on holiday. Any tips?

[cali]

I've never owned a car in my life. I use car sharing services at my city and if I have to go out of the city I rent a car and/or use my gf's car.
At the end of the year I've spent less money and I don't have to think about fuel, insurance, tires and so on.

They say in my country that if you drive around 10 000 - 15 000 km in a year it's cheaper to use a taxi... I have never done the calculation myself but I guess for 10 000 km a year you do not need to own a car.

[Mirek]

It is absolutely rubbish - you're saying that if someone buys a new STI because of the connection to rallying and the engineering spinoffs from rallying, they just don't count. You're welcome to speak for your own reasons for buying cars, but assuming everyone else shares your thinking makes you look arrogant or stupid, which I'm sure you're not really.

It seems like you think WRC marketing is the only part of rallying that matters or influences car buyers, which is not the case at all - local profile affects local markets, and many people (in NZ at least, maybe Europe is different) actually buy cars for their capability not just for the badge.

Skodas aren't very common in NZ, and they are mostly driven by old people for fuel economy. Subarus on the other hand are very popular - partly because we have a lot of gravel roads, and they are very good on gravel. Part of the reason they are good on gravel is because of what Subaru learnt from rallying. Its not just about marketing, but engineering as well! And production based rallying gives a much closer link.

Overall sales have many other factors too - local economic situation, different taxes (IIRC European made cars get much better tax rates in Europe so Japanese cars become relatively more expensive), competition etc. The competition combined with taxes might be the biggest factor in reduced Subaru sales in Europe - there are more different options with similar performance to choose between now like Golf R etc.

I admit that it's different on NZ than in Europe but still You have to agree that the times when Petter Solberg was driving Impreza WRC and literally everybody knew that are long gone. Our Norwegian members once posted nice study of the Subaru Norway sales. When Petter got the title the market went crazy. There's no way to achieve comparable level from few privatteers running here and there especially when even in NZ You have now the faster AP4 cars. Here in Europe most of the championships are totally dominated by R5 cars and Subarus have been disappearing (they are still somewhat present in gravel countries but they are near non existent in asphalt countries).

They say in my country that if you drive around 10 000 - 15 000 km in a year it's cheaper to use a taxi... I have never done the calculation myself but I guess for 10 000 km a year you do not need to own a car.

I do around 15-25 thousand a year and if I haven't had my own car I wouldn't probably buy it now. My company has a Hertz garage directly in our facility (they supply us with cars for business trips) and since they need to have their cars somehow used also during weekends and holidays they give us employees very cheap rental offers. I live in Prague and during the week I don't need a car at all when public transport is much faster and very cheap (0,4 Euro/day if You pay a one year ticket).

[mArvAlcao17]

I literally asked my dad to choose Ford Fiesta over some other cars (including first gen of Yaris) 4 years ago simply because i saw their WRC car.

Kinda happy, but also kinda regret it because the part's price are slightly more expensive than the others, plus Ford has left Indonesian market a year after

[GravelBen]

I admit that it's different on NZ than in Europe but still You have to agree that the times when Petter Solberg was driving Impreza WRC and literally everybody knew that are long gone. Our Norwegian members once posted nice study of the Subaru Norway sales. When Petter got the title the market went crazy. There's no way to achieve comparable level from few privatteers running here and there especially when even in NZ You have now the faster AP4 cars. Here in Europe most of the championships are totally dominated by R5 cars and Subarus have been disappearing (they are still somewhat present in gravel countries but they are near non existent in asphalt countries).

Yes, I definitely agree that it has changed and that they can't rely on past rallying to boost sales. Subaru have a longer rally history here than in Europe too, Possum Bourne was rallying 4wd Subarus from about 1983! We know that AP4 and R5 can beat them especially on tighter roads (though Ben Hunt's Subaru was second in NZRC this year behind Hayden Paddon), but rally people also know the road cars R5 and AP4 are based on aren't really performance cars - so if we want to drive something that actually feels a bit like a rally car there aren't many other options. People like us are a small portion of the car market though, its interesting to see how much Hyundai's mainstream profile in NZ has also been improved by the association with Hayden and rallying.

My disagreement was that you seemed to be saying there was no connection at all anymore, and that nobody buying Subarus had anything to do with the rally connection. Maybe that was a misunderstanding of what you meant.

Back on topic, as well as the Legacy GTB (2002, the last of the 2.0 twin-turbo version) I have an old 1996 Nissan Terrano (aka Pathfinder in some countries) 3.2td for off-road fun. It goes ok for an old 4wd but the Legacy feels like a spaceship after I've been driving it for a while!

[Norm75]

Subaru sales are really strong in America. Here in Britain they no longer sell the WRX STI, but still do in America, South Africa, Asian markets.
Whether the fact that Subaru are still prominent in American rally championship has much to do with car sales over there I don't know.

[pantealex]

Skoda is interesting brand, it has that "cheap car" image but here in Finland where Octavia has been Top3 most selling car for years now, most selling model is RS. And overall most selling engine 2.0TDI not any small benzin or 1.6TDI.
So common Skoda buyer is ready to pay 15000€ more than basic model.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

A big disappointment for me was the Mk3 Focus RS. It's just way too ordinary-looking for an RS and the interior is just normal Focus and quite cramped for a family-size hatch.

The other problem was/is the engine - getting good power from the 2.3 Ecoboost was a struggle. They had big cooling problems... and then they used the wrong head-gasket and let it go into production !

[L555MAT]

A big disappointment for me was the Mk3 Focus RS. It's just way too ordinary-looking for an RS and the interior is just normal Focus and quite cramped for a family-size hatch.

The other problem was/is the engine - getting good power from the 2.3 Ecoboost was a struggle. They had big cooling problems... and then they used the wrong head-gasket and let it go into production !

I agree when I bought my STI last year there was a Mk3 RS focus parked next to it in the garage and I thought the scooby had much more presence